Will Cultural Teaching Methods Influence Student Understanding of Politics and Bureaucracy in the Public Administration Curriculum of African Countries within the COVID-19?

The rationale of this study is first hinged on research deficit in topic difficulty in the public administration curriculum in African universities. Further, there is no single study in the humanities, particularly public administration (PA), that has explored the efficacy of the Culturo-Techno-Contextual Approach (CTCA) in easing learning difficulties among undergraduate students except for identifying the difficulties. Without testing indigenous teaching methods in breaking difficulties in the study of PA, educational managers and teachers in African universities are unable to understand whether the lecture method or the indigenous method holds the key to breaking difficulties in the study of politics and bureaucracy within the African university system. These compelling deficits in the public administration literature necessitate this study to fill the gap. In resolving this identified problem, the study seeks to find out whether or not there is a statistically significant difference in the achievements in politics and bureaucracy between students taught using the CTCA and those taught using the lecture method. In line with this problem, the study seeks to answer the question -- is there a statistically significant difference in the achievements in politics and bureaucracy between students taught using the CTCA and those taught using the lecture method?

Preventing Anti-Asian Acts in Schools with Culturally Responsive Teaching and Anti-Bullying Programs

The increase in hostile behavior targeted at Asian people is a concern that school districts must address. To respond well, educators need to apply effective methods for preventing this problem. One of the ways they can achieve this goal is by implementing a culturally responsive approach to teaching. Another involves using effective anti-bullying programs. This paper provides details about the importance of implementing these strategies to prevent anti-Asian attacks. It also provides several examples of anti-Asian incidents that occurred shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began. A few historical events involving the hostile treatment of Asian people are included to provide a context for understanding this problem. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Clearing House is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Team of Caring Educators Delivering a Specialized Math Curriculum for Racialized Youth during COVID-19

This study examined the efficacy of an afternoon and weekend academic program called the "Community School Initiative" (CSI) during the COVID-19 pandemic. CSI was offered to racialized students and families from the Jane and Finch community in Toronto which is one of the most under-resourced neighbourhoods in Canada. It involved a partnership between private social enterprise "Spirit of Math" and non-profit organization "Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education" (YAAACE). Seven teachers participated in a focus group and 33 students and parents completed a survey to express their experiences attending the CSI. Findings were identified using thematic analysis from a Critical Race Theory paradigm. Key characteristics of effective structural community-programming were identified. The results highlight the importance of access to opportunities in a culturally reflective manner to ensure student success through continuity of care particularly on evenings and weekends involving a team of caring educators.

Using Technology to Enhance Special Education. Advances in Special Education. Volume 37

"Using Technology to Enhance Special Education," Volume 37 of Advances in Special Education, is a logically, thoughtfully organized, and well-sequenced text. It focuses on how general and special educators can use technology to work with children and youth with disabilities. This cutting-edge book involves researchers, scholars, educators, and leaders who are knowledge producers in the field. It is written to respond to today's changing world where technology has become a very powerful force. As it stands, the world is getting smaller and smaller;and what is happening in a location quickly becomes known everywhere. For example, during the tense periods of the global COVID pandemic, technology became the livewire of our world. This book begins with an introduction to technology and students with disabilities;and the remaining chapters focus on the role of technology in the education of students with learning disabilities, emotional and/or behavioral disorders, and intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, physical and health impairments, hearing impairments/deafness, visual impairments, and traumatic brain injuries. In addition, some chapters focus on the role of technology in achieving equitable and inclusive education, building culturally and linguistically responsive general and special education, and creatively using digital comics to improve written narratives. In the end, this book concludes with a chapter that forward looking ways to infuse technology in special education. We feel that this volume is an excellent resource for special education researchers, scholars, practitioners, and professionals who teach and serve students with disabilities.

Pods in Action: My Reflection Matters. A Virtual Village Where BIPOC Families "Unschool" Together

In 2020, twin forces inspired large numbers of U.S. families of color to look outside traditional schools for their children's education. First, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused schools to shift in and out of virtual or hybrid instruction, many parents looked for other options because they were concerned about keeping their children safe or were dissatisfied with the quality of instruction. At the same time, the racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd sparked a national conversation about systemic racism. For many parents of color, this included questions about whether it would be healthier for their child to be educated outside a system they viewed as replicating injustices. The My Reflection Matters (MRM) Village provided the answer that some of those parents were seeking. MRM Village is a nationwide, virtual network of parents, students, and educators, formed with a mission to "cultivate a space that provides the supports, conversations, and healing required to decolonize adults' beliefs and practices around learning and parenting in order to raise free people." Initially an in-person, local organization, MRM launched its virtual "Village" platform in August 2020 to connect and support primarily Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) families. By summer 2021, MRM Village had amassed a membership of more than 600 parents, students, and educators across North America seeking a radically different, identity-affirming alternative to traditional schooling. This report provides an overview of MRM, which has provided an innovative unschooling environment that provides a safe, affirming space, allows for parents and students to take ownership over learning, and frees participants from systems rooted in systemic racism.

Disentangling SEL: Advocating for Black Sociality, Questioning White Teachers' Emotionality

This article disentangles social and emotional learning (SEL) into its 2 constitutive parts--sociality and emotionality through a backward mapping of the School Development Program (SDP) developed by James Comer. This article argues that Comer's school-level intervention is a process model for how to achieve SEL outcomes given its intentionality toward making schooling a homeplace and its capacity to buildout conditions of Black sociality. The SDP also challenges how teacher preparation programs perpetuates harm to students of color by codifying white emotionality. This harm suggests a need to reimagine teacher preparation. This article thus concludes by recommending that teacher preparation programs should study more models and processes like the SDP and confront color-evasiveness.

Creative Learning and Mental Health: Working with Youth in The Clubhouse Network

While mental health issues have always been part of the landscape of youth work, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought them into sharp relief. For nearly 30 years, The Clubhouse Network has provided young people from low-income communities with a safe out-of-school setting in which to explore, experiment, and express themselves through technology. In the process, they gain a stronger sense of self while developing marketable technology and life skills. Furthermore, the Clubhouse learning model helps young people deal with some of the real pain in their lives. This article explores how three Clubhouses around the globe (in Colombia, New Zealand, and Nevada) provide unique opportunities to address adolescent vulnerabilities and provide trauma-informed care, and what others can learn from their experience.

An Integrative Multi-Dimensional Model of Culturally Relevant Academic Evaluation for the 21st Century

Due to COVID-19, the world has encountered new challenges regarding pedagogy, learning, assessment, and evaluation. In meeting these challenges, there have been rapid changes in learning, and the gap between pedagogy and evaluation has grown. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new evaluative model suitable for the technologically enhanced, multicultural environment of the 21st century. In this article, we develop a unique multidimensional model of Culturally Relevant Academic Evaluation (CRAE) that fills a gap in the scientific literature on evaluation in higher education. The model depicts evaluation as an integrated process of four dimensions: two of them based on the well-established dimensions of learning and curriculum, and two based on the novel dimensions of inclusive multiculturalism and technology. We consider evaluation in its broad context in higher education, and we analyze the interrelations between the four dimensions of the evaluation process, discussing their contribution to the enhancement of evaluation in higher education.

The Importance of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in the Era of COVID: Using Documentary Film to Tell Stories from the Front Line

The COVID-19 global pandemic forced teachers and schools to rethink everything about the educational process. They were left in their own homes to face the challenges of binary pandemics: healthcare and racial injustice, and the need for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy became as important as ever. This article provides a view into the lives of teachers in urban schools who relied on the tenets of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to serve their students. Twenty-five teachers were interviewed for a documentary film and several themes emerged, including resiliency, empathy, professional respect, and social justice activism.

The Collaborative Model for Teaching o-SEL: Preparing Educators to Design Online Environments for Social-Emotional Learning

In this study, we sought to develop a model to provide educators with training and resources to effectively support and guide social-emotional learning (SEL) in PK-12 online environments, which we refer to as o-SEL. We utilized five national sets of standards and competencies to guide the development of six online modules for educators to gain skills, knowledge, and resources to help students learn SEL-related skills. Qualitative methods and analysis were employed to examine our research question. We utilized design thinking as a strategy for developing o-SEL professional learning. Five SEL experts were identified and invited to participate in a brief survey to determine areas of focus and then we conducted two one-hour focus groups. The focus group discussion was transcribed, coded, and analyzed to determine emergent themes related to areas of SEL needs in online learning environments. Based on our findings, we identified six elements (i.e., Empower, Engage, Motivate, Include, Collaborate, Extend) for educators to foster inclusive o-SEL environments for PK-12 learners that we describe as the Collaborative Model for Teaching o-SEL. We discuss the positive impact that o-SEL instruction can have on student learning outcomes, while also designing inclusive and culturally relevant support structures. This study calls for further investigation regarding teacher application of the o-SEL model and impact of o-SEL on student learning.

Progress and Potential: The Innovations of Pandemic Learning Communities Led by Leaders of Color

In partnership with researchers around the country, CRPE conducted 22 case studies of community-based pandemic learning communities to learn more about the experiences of those who participated. This paper synthesizes lessons from seven initiatives that were led by community leaders of color to assess what they may cumulatively teach us about advancing racial justice in K-12 educational spaces. We found: (1) COVID-19 created a window of opportunity for leadership and innovation in communities of color, (2) Leaders of color drew on similar practices when designing the programs, including hiring staff of color, avoiding punitive discipline practices, adopting culturally relevant pedagogy, and supporting student and family well-being, (3) Leaders saw programs as a way to put advocacy proposals into action, (4) Parents reported high levels of satisfaction with the programming, and (5) Funding, expertise, and school reopenings challenge the future of these programs.

Culturally Sustaining Web 2.0 Technology Use in the Pacific: Innovations from American Samoa and Hawai'i

This study takes a transnational and collaborative approach to explore how Pacific Island educators are using web 2.0 technology to enhance instruction and facilitate culturally sustaining learning opportunities for emergent bilingual and multilingual students. It is also an analysis of the digital divide for young adolescent users due to linguistic, economic, and geographic barriers. Two middle level education vignettes are presented--one from American Samoa and one from Hawai'i. First, we explore the areas of technology use, collaborative learning, and culturally sustaining education within our unique Pacific contexts. Each vignette consists of an overview of the technology usage within our Pacific contexts, connections to "The Successful Middle School: This We Believe," results, and next steps. This study caters to educators working with multilingual and multicultural populations and contributes to the knowledge base of culturally sustaining pedagogy in middle level online learning environments.

Practising Pacific Pedagogies during New Zealand's Level Four Lockdown: Pacific Early Career Academics and COVID-19

During New Zealand's unprecedented level-four lockdown, opportunities to practise Pacific pedagogies in New Zealand universities required creative and innovative solutions from Pacific academics. This paper brings together the experiences of teaching during this lockdown from a cross-section of Pacific Early Career Academics (PECA) across a wide range of disciplines and schools at New Zealand's largest university. This paper argues that despite the challenges, PECA found ways to adapt Pacific pedagogical concepts through online delivery methods;however, their ability to effectively do this was severely influenced by existing socio-economic inequities that disproportionately impacted Pacific students. PECA continued to nurture the va/wa with students in innovative ways, but they still encountered major challenges that will require more careful consideration of equity issues by New Zealand universities moving forward.

"Fakalukuluku": Conceptualising a Tongan Learning Approach in Tertiary Education

Given the current impact of COVID-19, the learning experiences of Pasifika students within tertiary education has implicated their social and emotional wellbeing. Engaging in a Tongan learning approach, such as "fakalukuluku," can present a viable learning practice for tertiary students' learning experiences. This paper presents the perspectives of four Tongan-born and raised researchers and educators who completed their tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Based on our experiences and reflections, we propose the Tongan concept of "fakalukuluku" as an approach to help elevate students' academic achievement in tertiary education. Our paper conceptualises and unfolds perspectives of "fakalukuluku," as a cultural practice that is appropriate, collaborative, and accorded learning stability because of its spiritual dimensions as being paramount to students' success. We propose that a strong family and community support, the utilising of university learning support and the students' spiritual beliefs can help Tongan students in tertiary education succeed.

Designing Materials for Emergency Remote Language Teaching Contexts: A Qualitative Study of Pre-Service Teachers' Experiences

Emergency Remote Language Teaching is a new term coined after the concept of Emergency Remote Teaching (Hodges, et al., 2020), which emphasizes that teaching that is being done during emergencies and crises, as the pandemic caused by COVID-19, is neither distance nor online teaching properly. This paper explores the attitudes and perceptions of pre-service bilingual primary teachers at the University of Córdoba (Spain) regarding the design of socially and culturally responsive learning materials in a real Emergency Remote Language Teaching context. Due to the nature of this exploratory research, this study was designed to perform a qualitative analysis. To analyze the data, the grounded-theory scheme was followed to establish different categories and topics, then content analysis was applied, and finally, a manual SWOT analysis was created. Participants showed positive attitudes towards the design of materials for Emergency Remote Language Teaching, emphasizing the feeling of real teachers, the design of resources with a meaningful purpose, and the importance of 'thinking outside the box.' They also found challenges derived from the new, complex situation, and the lack of experience designing materials for distance teaching. Recommendations are proposed for teacher training and materials design in Emergency Remote Language Teaching contexts.

"Imua": Reflections on "Imua," "Talanoa-va" and Leadership in the Ongoing Strategic Journey of a New Zealand University

The appointment of the University of Waikato's first Assistant Vice-Chancellor Pacific in February 2019 was an important milestone, not only recognising years of work and dedication by numerous Pacific and Maori staff, but triggering a new strategic direction for 'Pacific at Waikato'. This paper explains that journey, one that is underpinned by Pacific cultural legacies, strengths, values and identity;built on talanoa-va;informed by research, data analytics, student and community voice;combined with strategic thought and planning;and outworked in the pan-Pacific epithet, 'imua'. This is a story of resilience, determination, negotiating a pandemic, problem-solving and innovation in an environment that seeks a 'culture of belonging' and where Pacific learners are encouraged to be themselves in the pursuit of educational achievement. This paper will be of interest to education providers, stakeholders and policy makers.

Creating Culturally Relevant, Place-Based Lessons for First Graders in Minnesota - And in Every Community

On a blustery day in March 2021, a line of bundled-up, masked first graders walked from school to a house on the National Register of Historic Places in their south Minneapolis neighborhood. For these 23 young learners, it wasn't just a walk. This COVID-era field trip was a culminating activity in a series of lessons, "Unearthing Histories," that empowered the students to be historians, dig into their complex local history, and then take action to help create a more just future. "Unearthing Histories" was a long time in the making, especially for first-grade teacher Megan Peterson. But Megan's journey from late summer of 2019 to the end of the 2020-2021 school year emphasizes the possibilities of local history in helping to frame and support anti-racist elementary social studies.

Recovery for U.S. Students in 2021: What Schools and Districts Can Do to Make up for Lost Learning Time

After eighteen months of school closure and disrupted learning, civic leaders, researchers, and educational leaders are getting a clearer picture of how students fared through the pandemic, and what new reality school systems face as they return to in-person schooling in 2021-22. Increases in community infection rates and parent hesitancy have thrown districts back into uncertainty, making it all the more critical to ensure continuity of learning and well-being for students who may not be able to return to classrooms as quickly as planned, and may face continued disruptions due to quarantines. As students return to a third year of disrupted learning, school and system leaders cannot lose sight of our schools' most critical charge this year: addressing unfinished learning and restoring student well-being. While gauging the academic impacts of the pandemic through spring 2021 has been challenging, a body of evidence is emerging from a range of public and private institutions studying this question from different angles. The best interpretations of the most reliable information available underscore a few critical observations: (1) the average student mastered less academic content this year because of the pandemic and associated disruptions to schooling;(2) the pandemic's average impacts on academic achievement, while significant, mask substantial variation in impacts across subjects, grades, demographic groups, and geography;(3) the evidence to date likely understates both the average academic impacts of the pandemic and the opportunity and achievement gaps it has produced;and (4) declines in student well-being indicators could diminish future conditions for successful learning. We propose the following six principles, some of which districts are already applying, to ensure students experience a positive, healthy, and restorative schooling experience this year: (1) provide each student an individualized, three-year instructional plan that uses data to address their academic, social, and emotional needs;(2) prioritize strategies that honor and re-engage students most impacted by the pandemic;(3) use tutoring, extended learning time, and early diagnostic systems to strengthen student foundations in math and early literacy;(4) provide at least one quality remote option while safely reopening schools in person;(5) pilot new structures for learning, such as flexible schedules, prioritizing content mastery over seat time, and new ways of structuring school;and (6) create coherent, aligned systems of support for educators and families. This moment demands new, bold leadership from all of us who touch the lives of students--from civic leaders to policymakers to system leaders to educators. Fast action and transformative change can prevent long-term harm. [The COVID Collaborative contributed to this report.]

Weaving CLES-FS and Talanoa to Capture Fijian Student's Science Learnings: Exploring Possibilities

This study seeks to explain how a modified Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) was implemented together with talanoa to explore Fijian students' perceptions of a constructivist learning environment in the science classroom in New Zealand secondary schools. The modified CLES, called CLES-FS, was developed explicitly for Fijian students in the New Zealand secondary schooling context. The adapted CLES-FS instrument included five components of constructivist learning: relationship and identity, familiar context, talanoa, critical voice and shared control. The inclusion of talanoa within the CLES-survey tool has not been done before to collect data from iTaukei (Indigenous) and Fijian-Indian students. The implication of using talanoa alongside CLES-FS has provided the unfolding of possibilities when weaving together qualitative as well as quantitative data. As an emerging Pacific researcher, the exploration exercise is essential learning that helps make sense of what it means to engage in research, particularly within the post-COVID context.

"Crazy, Brave New Kid Learning a New [Virtual] Land": Multidirectional Mentorship for, with, and by a Bilingual Teacher Candidate/Writer

The closing of universities and pK-12 schools in March 2020 pushed teacher preparation programs to explore virtual models of providing teacher candidates with clinical experiences. This case study chronicles a multiple-semester collaboration between a bilingual graduate-level teacher candidate (TC) and university faculty members (authors) exploring what it might mean to enact writing instruction in a fully virtual community of in-service teachers, undergraduate- and graduate-level TCs, and children in grades K-5. Drawing on Garcia et al.'s (2016) current/corriente metaphor, the TC's translanguaging performances in the community across time were examined to track the multidirectional flows of mentorship that shifted the community's engagement as digital writers and writing teachers. Findings identified three critical flows of mentorship made possible by the virtual infrastructure: (a) mentorship between TCs and in-service teachers;(b) mentorship between TCs and faculty members;and (c) and mentorship between families/caregivers and TCs. These multidirectional flows disrupted traditional hierarchical notions of university-pK-12 school demarcations, offering insights into possibilities for reimagining more effective virtual clinical models for preparing TCs who can enact culturally sustaining writing pedagogy as a means of sustaining all children's cultural and linguistic practices.